Sadly, I've had it with Captain Lawrence...

I'm going to like everything about this for a vast variety of reasons. The breweries prices make no sense to me as a customer or a store manager since I can get beer from all word for the same price, if not cheaper, than a brewery that's less than an hour away from me.

 

It's unfortunate but price does make a difference, especially when the brewery is local.
I had distanced myself from CL when they were in Pleasantville and I went to the tasting room and had tastes just about thrown at me by the bartender, who clearly was is a pissed off mood and was taking it out on the customers. Then when Sandy hit, I was staying at a motel minutes away and went to the "new" brewery and had a Captain's Reserve IPA, which was as good as always, but I must say was $7 at the brewery. I also bought an overpriced bottle as a way to do the test draft vs. bottle. I can only surmise that Scott is looking to expand further and needs to raise as much money as quickly as possible. He may be penny wise and pound foolilsh from the tone of the first 2 posts.

 

Oh also, The 15$ Hops N Roses at the brewery? Only 13 at my store. Yay 2 bucks saved

 

Not to brewery bash but I didn't like hops n roses at all. I payed a good amount less then $15 for the bottle and it was still a near drain pour.

 

I still like 'em. They make some tasty beer. I think the plastic cup is weird, but not ban-worthy. I think I would have brought it up to the barkeep..

As for not knowing the price before you order it... who's fault is that, honestly?

CL is in a great place to make a lot of money, though, and they know it. They're not a 'let's-hold-hands-and-sing' type of brewery, they're about making tasty beers and profits out the wazoo.

I think CL could slap my grandparents in the face with a rotting carp and I'd still be OK as long as I got some Golden Delicious, though.

 

What did you expect overpriced junk to come in? A blank bottle without a label?

 

My perfect overpriced junk beer would come in a blank bottle with a "Hi, My name is ____" Sticker on it so I could appropriately name my beer, Bottle number it, and sell it for 60$ a bottle every Tuesday.

 

To put a positive spin on this thread...

Things that are great about CL right now:

The new digs - Tasting room is nice and roomy; great to be able to move around now without elbowing someone/everyone in the ribcage; nice to look out onto the brewing floor too. Food? YES! The Cookery pizza is ridiculously awesome.

"Silent" releases - Been killin' it lately...especially with the Golden Sour and the Sour Cherry. I'd pay exorbitant prices all day for those gems.

Greater market presence - Seeing more and more of their beers showing up at more and more places. My local has Golden Delicious right now for $9.50/bottle. Are you kidding me?? That's incredible...

 

I think comparing american wild prices to belgians at the source isnt a very good argument. Russian River 375s are about the same price as CL. I liked Hops and Roses a lot. I know many other people that did too.

 

Last time I was there, they had every price for every 12 oz pour clearly marked on the chalkboard. If you feel like it's not a good value, pay the $2 for a tasting GLASS (it's made of glass, it's quite nice, and they let you keep it). But you only had 20 minutes for samples? Clearly Captain Lawrence's fault.

I've been going there since my Pace days and have had nothing but great experiences. I started going as a college student just so I could get my free drink on in the tasting room but I have even more love for them now that I appreciate better beer. They are probably a big reason for that as well. Like Knife mentioned, they've been doing an awesome job with the silent releases, and coming out with a new sour pretty frequently. They've come out with at least 5 in the last year alone. They obviously cost more to make and store which you mentioned, but they're also experiments that they are taking chances on. I'd much rather a brewery try new things with a possibility of failing rather than just sticking with tried and true recipes (I happened to like Hops N Roses fwiw).

Clearly, they're doing something right or else the tasting room wouldn't be packed all the time, they wouldn't sell out of limited releases at $15 or $20, and they wouldn't be winning GABF medals. If you want to pass over them, just one less person I'll have to worry about snatching up their delicious beers.

 

This rant reminds me a bit of a butt-hurt teen on a Justin Bieber fanpage. It's inarticulate, entirely unfair, and displays a lack of understand towards how beer is made and the costs associate with it.

I'm not sure I understand the outrage. Most of Captain Lawrence's products are very reasonably priced. Their run-of-the-mill, year round offerings are readily available for $9.99/6-pack. Golden Delicious and Nor'Easter are only $12-13/750ml, which is nothing for barrel-aged beer. They're charging a pretty flat markup on all of their products, like every other craft brewery, and aren't marking much more or less money than their competitors.

Likewise, Hops N' Roses is outrageously priced, but not because they're making millions off of it. It was outrageously priced because the cost of producing that beer is outrageous. It's aged in white wine barrels, uses an expensive blend of food-grade flowers, is soured on wild yeast, etc. If you take issue with Hops N' Roses, don't take issue with the price, take issue with the fact that the beer wasn't delicious enough to warrant the expense and effort that they put into making it.

And honestly, judging by how many bottles of Hops N' Roses I see sitting on shelves in NY, I'm sure Captain Lawrence knows Hops N' Roses was an overpriced failboat, as well, so the point of this thread is moot. The free market has spoken.

 

I may be wrong, but I was under the assumption that the plastic cups had something to do with the legality/risk of having the courtyard outside open to bring drinks out there.

Additionally, if they were in it or the $s, there is no way they would be barrel aging and brewing small batch and limited beers which often use very expensive ingredients.

 

Breweries are often higher priced so as to not undercut the retailers that carry their product. Totally normal.

 

My pluses are bottles of Kolsch, Freshchester, Pumpkin, and Brown available in 12 oz., at reasonable prices. Smoked Porter bottle for 4.50 was a bit pricy, but not crazy, and quite delicious But all of these previously were draft only. Now avail. in storable form. Release the Imperial Smoked Porter in a reasonably priced bottle and I will be even happier.

I agree their prices are too high. Golden Sour was okay, Mother Barrel disappointed me greatly, but Hops N Roses was a treat. All of these are way overpriced, as was the recent Barrel Select Brown Cherry, but that one at least was phenomenal.

For me it was easier to get to their old location so that is a big minus.

And as far as them just in it for the money, well, there are quite a few brewers out there who are not in it for the money, plenty of them, more each day, and they are called homebrewers

 

I bought (insert beer here) and didn't like it....so, its Infected! Same Argument being made as this rant.

Sorry OP, although I tend to agree with you on most of your points about CL, I choose not to buy their beer (or complain about it)